'Orphan Train' @ NYSTI 2/3/09

TROY — In 1854, the Rev. Charles Loring Brace and the Children’s Aid Society of New York began a program of sending urban foundlings and forgotten children west to live and work with frontier families.
The orphan trains ran for more than 70 years, placing thousands of children in homes and laying the groundwork for the foster family movement.
Obviously not every story ended happily, and a new musical at the New York State Theatre Institute shows both sides of the story with remarkable balance.
“Orphan Train” was created by composer Doug Katsaros, librettist L.E. McCullough and lyricist Michael Barry Greer, and it’s directed in Troy by longtime NYSTI associate Patricia Birch.
A screen behind the stage projects images of the trains and stations and homes, and also serves as an entranceway for actors. It’s a standard bit of theater magic, but it works wonderfully here, keeping the playing space clear while still defining the settings clearly.
A huge cast moves well in front of the screen, clad in period costumes courtesy of Dona Granata.
But the frippery simply surrounds the story, which hinges on a quintet of orphans — Barney (Charles Franklin), Bridget (Alison Lehane), Emma (Kyra Bechard), Jenny (Eleah Jayne Peal) and Peter (George Franklin).
Once west, their paths diverge and each faces their own particular catastrophes. Some come through shining. Other’s don’t.
Bridget, for example, lands with a couple headed by a less than honorable father (David Bunce), who tends to spend a little too much time with the new girl in the house.
And Emma might have fared better had she stayed an urchin in New York City.
What is even more surprising than the starkness of the situation is the tartness of the language. NYSTI is not pulling punches with “Orphan Train,” which is still in development. The play’s script and songs are not just salty, but foul-mouthed. Not to worry, the oaths are in keeping with the tone of the piece and none seem extraneous or gratuitous.
And again, what makes “Orphan Train” bold is its honesty, not its elements.
Birch does her usual bang-up job of moving many players around, and she keeps a close eye on what’s happening to these kids.
They inhabit a world where adults seem to have forgotten that they were once children too, and in some ways that is the heart of the show’s message.
The close, which brings the statistics of orphans and “surplus children” up to 21st century date, veers towards the hackneyed, but it is barely less powerful for it.
And despite its heavy overtones, “Orphan Train” is surprisingly tuneful and entertaining.
Recommended.
Michael Eck is a freelancer writer from Albany and a frequent contributor to the Times Union.